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It wasn't the greatest television program ever made. It wasn't even a particularly good show. But, for all of its flaws, I don't think that  "The Amazing Spider-Man" series deserves all of the brutal attacks that it gets from critics and science fiction fans. For years it was extraordinarily hard to find any information about this series at all, even though I remember it thrilling me as well as  my other five year old friends whenever it aired. In the late eighties, I rediscovered the series when I found a copy of Prism Entertainment's release of "Night of the Clones & Escort To Danger" in a local video store.  After seeing these again, I remembered how much I enjoyed the "feel" of this show, despite its many flaws and I sought out more episodes. Through the help of a local comic dealer, I managed to get copies of all 13 episodes. Some were worse than I remembered but some held up very well.  All in all, even though I'm now in my twenties, I still am a fan of this series.  
 

       "The Amazing Spider-Man" definitely wasn't a perfect show. Some episodes have glaring plot holes. Spidey's costume often looks very silly. Some of the episodes feature corny dialogue and bad acting. Still, it had its strengths. For a 70's show, it featured great special effects! The stunts in "The Amazing Spider-Man" were absolutely spectacular for their day. Many of the stories were exciting, funny, and enjoyable. And of course, the lead stars of the show carried it well. Nicholas Hammond (who's most famous role prior to Spider-Man was as one of the children in "The Sound of Music), looked, sounded and acted like Peter Parker should. He played the character in earnest, portraying Peter's kindness, sensitivity, and awkwardness with ease. Robert F. Simon played a kinder J. Jonah Jameson than in the comics but nonetheless fit the series extremely well. And of course, Chip Fields' character, Rita, delivered some of the series' funniest lines. I wasn't too partial to Michael Pataki's Captain Barbera and neither were the producers: he disappeared after the first season. Ellen Bry's character, Julie Masters, was more likable but was played inconsistently throughout the second season. In one episode, she and Peter would seem to be in love, while in other episodes, they would be bitter rivals.  

       Contrary to popular belief, The Amazing Spider-Man" was not canceled due to low ratings. This misconception arises from the fact that only 13 episodes were filmed and that the series has often been the subject of barbed critical reviews. The pilot movie, "Spider-Man" aired in the fall of 1977 to high ratings. The regular series of one hour episodes aired as a spring replacement series the following spring, again to solid ratings. In fact, "The Amazing Spider-Man" was tied for 19th spot on the Nielsen charts for the 1977/1978 season. Unfortunately, television politics spelled trouble for Spider-Man's live action television adventures. CBS was apparently leery about being known as "The Superhero Network", especially since they also aired live action adventures of "The Incredible Hulk", "Wonder Woman", "Captain America" and "Dr. Strange." The network was reluctant to give Spider-Man the green light to become a regular weekly series during the 1978/1979 season. Instead, they ordered six new one hour episodes which were aired sporadically throughout the fall of 1978. Spidey was put into different time slots to see how he could suck the ratings away from various television competitors. The final one hour episode aired in February 1979 and Spidey went off of the air for almost five months. He returned in a two hour TV adventure called "The Chinese Web" in July of 1979 before CBS officially pulled the plug on his web line. When the series ended, the cast seemed to be banished to guest roles in various  television series and low-budget movies. I managed to catch Robert F. Simon in "M.A.S.H.", Chip Fields in "The Facts Of Life" and Nicholas Hammond in a couple of episodes of the new "Flipper."  

       Part of Spider-Man's problem was that it never seemed to totally decide on the direction it was heading in as a series. The pilot movie was very comic bookish with an absurd plot and campy characters. The first season matured a bit, but still maintained "over the top" adventure stories. When the second season rolled around, the plots were constrained to be more adult and a love interest was added for Peter. The second season is definitely my favorite of all of the seasons and I felt it would have been nice to see more live action adventures in this vein. Another part of Spider-Man's problem was that his comic book creator, Stan Lee, HATED the live action series and made public announcements about how bad he felt this show was. In all honesty, I don't feel this is anywhere near the bottom of the barrel as far as comic book adaptations go. Certainly, I felt that Reb Brown's "Captain America" films were *FAR* worse.  

       Ironically though, despite his bad live action reputation, Spider-Man obviously has fans who love his prime-time adventures. After the series ceased production, the producers shot a few short segments designed to "link" separate episodes together so that they could be shown as television moves. In the 1980s, Children's Playhouse Video released "Spider-Man", "The Deadly Dust" and "The Chinese Web" on video. Prism Entertainment took up the cause by releasing "Spider-Man volume I" and "Spider-Man volume II", which showcased "Night Of The Clones", "Escort To Danger", "The Curse Of Rava" and "Con Caper." The videos were discontinued in the late 1980s, but the series remained a staple of many networks such as "The U.S.A. Network" and "The Sci Fi Channel" in the nineties. In the last few years, Rhino Entertainment has released all of the episodes except one on affordably priced home videos.  

       One area where Spider-Man is still lacking, however, is on the Internet. This is changing rapidly as more and more fans of this show come out of the woodwork. This page is my attempt to help fill a void. So sit back, relax, and see what Spider-Man's live action television adventures are all about!